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Faculty profiles

Mónica Barra’s research focuses on fundamental studies of organic reaction mechanisms and of supramolecular systems, with emphasis on structure-reactivity correlations and molecular recognition studies.

Carey Bissonnette's current research interest is in chemical education: trying to identify key threshold concepts in courses he teaches, exploring how to help students master those concepts by researching and using evidence-based best practices, and learning more about how to become an effective chemistry teacher.

Michael Chong's research is focused on developing new methodology for organic synthesis. This involves creating new reagents to carry out transformations which are not currently possible using existing methodology or to improve upon known reagents.

David Cory holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Quantum Information Processing. He is a physical chemist working to develop quantum devices for sensing and computation. Earlier sensors have found applications in fields as varied as cancer diagnostics, materials processing for tires, improved sensitivity for oil exploration, and a sensor for dark matter searches. Two startups recently spun out of the lab develop quantum sensors with medical, biochemical and materials applications.

Thorsten Dieckmann's research interests include the biophysics of RNA, structure and function of RNA and proteins, high resolution NMR spectroscopy, catalysis, drug design, viral infections, RNA world and the origin of life.

Thorsten is the Director of the Insititute of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.

Gary Dmitrienko's research involves the application of organic chemical, biochemical and microbiological techniques to the discovery of new treatments for infections caused by bacteria that are resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics such as penicillins, cephalosporins and carbapenems as well as the study of natural antitumour antibiotics.

Jean Duhamel is well recognized for his expertise at applying fluorescence techniques to characterize synthetic or biological macromolecules and their supramolecular assemblies at the nanoscale in solution and in the solid state. DNA, peptides, polypeptides, dendrimers, or polymeric surfactants are examples of the types of macromolecules which are being currently studied in this laboratory.

He is the Director of the Institute for Polymer Research at the University of Waterloo.

Eric Fillion carries out research in catalysis, synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry. Eric's group has developed several highly creative approaches to a variety of chemical structures, many of which are the scaffolds for medicinal agents and/or complex natural products.

Steven Forsey's interests are in chemical education. He teaches a variety of organic chemistry courses to Chemistry, Science, Chemical Engineering, Nanotechnology and distance education students. He explores different teaching techniques and try new technologies to enhance the learning experience of students.

He is the main author and head editor of an online interactive organic textbook.

From adapting passive gas sampling in polluted soils to speeding up extractions of chemicals from contaminated rock, Tadeusz Górecki has made a career of analyzing some of nature’s most complex samples. He is best known though for his patented improvements to two-dimensional chromatography, a much more sensitive, two-step version of gas chromatography that allows researchers to fully resolve analyte peaks in messy environmental and biological samples.

Tadeusz Górecki is the recipient of the 2016 Andrzej Waksmundzki Medal, awarded by the Committee on Analytical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Guy Guillemette carries out research in the area of biochemistry. His research focuses on the synthesis of nitric oxide by nitric oxide synthase. Nitric oxide is an important endogenous messenger in a variety of physiological and pathophysiological processes.

John Honek's research seeks to understand the fundamental interactions of small molecules (such as substrates and drugs) with enzymes as well as the mechanisms by which enzymes catalyze reactions.

His research in this area includes mechanistic enzymology, recombinant DNA and biophysical methods as well as organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry and molecular modeling. An additional focus is in the area of bionanotechnology and the application of biological chemistry to the synthesis of new nanomaterials and nanostructures.

Holger Kleinke's research focuses on finding and optimizing new thermoelectric materials. Thermoelectrics are capable of converting heat into electrical energy and vice versa. This environmentally friendly energy conversion currently has several applications, but is limited by its low efficiency. His research group is attempting to increase the efficiency so that thermoelectrics may be used to recover electricity from the nowadays abundant waste heat, e.g. in the exhaust of automobiles.

Anna Klinkova’s research is focused on developing efficient synthetic approaches to advanced nanomaterials for applications in alternative energy and catalysis. Her goal is to gain a systematic understanding of the effects of nanoparticle shape and surface chemistry on their physicochemical properties relevant to carbon dioxide conversion into fuels and chemical feedstocks, catalytic hydrogen production, enantioselective catalysis, and light harvesting in solar cells.

Robert Le Roy carries out research in the area of theoretical chemical physics. His research interests lie in the investigation of intermolecular forces and molecular systems using quantum mechanics and computer modeling.

He is renowned for his development of the near-dissociation theory with R.B. Bernstein, and for the derivation of the Le Roy Radius.

Sonny Lee's research efforts focus on challenging problems in transition element inorganic chemistry. His studies involve the synthesis of new compounds and compound classes, and the characterization of their physical and chemical properties by a broad array of methods.

Tong Leung's research interests include the design and fabrication of new molecular and nanoscale materials, and the manipulation of their structure-property-performance relations for emerging applications. His laboratory houses the Waterloo Advanced Technology Laboratory (WATLab), a premier materials research facility with state-of-the-art surface and nanomaterials research tools in microscopy, spectromicroscopy, fabrication, lithography, and rapid prototyping.

​Juewen Liu’s research uses DNA and lipids as functional polymers and catalysts at the nano-scale.

Liu has found DNA molecules can be altered to serve as highly selective biosensors and reaction catalysts. Applications include detecting heavy metals instantly in water samples and targeted drug delivery. He is also interested in interfacing lipids with nanoparticles to create hybrid nanomaterials.

Vivek Maheshwari carries out research in nanotechnology. His research interests include synthesis and assembly of 3-D nanomaterials and membranes, nanoelectrodes, energy harnessing and cellular electronics. The aim is to develop materials for application in new electronic devices, sensors and integration of cells with an electronic interface.

Terry McMahon's research program is directed toward the investigation of structure, energetic and reaction dynamics of gaseous ions. Most recently, the majority of his work has focussed on cluster ions. To carry out this research, he uses High Pressure Mass Spectrometry (HPMS) and Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FTICR) spectrometers.

He has been named University Professor and has received the F.P. Lossing and John C. Polanyi Awards in 2015.